It's Trinity Sunday, which seems an appropriate day to write about my brand-new church home, Holy Trinity Brussels.
Holy Trinity is the pro-cathedral of the diocese in Europe, no less. A pro-cathedral is, apparently, a church temporarily standing in as the cathedral for a diocese; I'm not sure why Holy Trinity is classified as such, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Brussels already has a (Catholic) cathedral. It's quite a big church - room for a couple of hundred people, I'd guess, and several other function rooms (including a bar downstairs, which is an excellent addition to any church!) - but you can't tell from the outside, as it's hidden away in a courtyard behind some other buildings, in the middle of one of Brussels' poshest shopping areas.
It's been there since 1902, though it was called Christ Church back then - it became Holy Trinity in 1958, when the congregation merged with another Anglican church nearby. There are four services every Sunday, all with very different styles, ranging from traditional communion using the Book of Common Prayer to a bilingual French/English service with African music. So far, I've only been to the main morning service, which is a fairly traditional sung communion with a robed choir; and, after only two weeks, I seem to have found myself singing in the said choir! It's amazing what can come from a casual conversation during the after-service coffee... It's a much bigger choir than I'm used to, and quite a few of the members seem to be scarily accomplished musicians, but I think I'm going to enjoy it.
Holy Trinity is the pro-cathedral of the diocese in Europe, no less. A pro-cathedral is, apparently, a church temporarily standing in as the cathedral for a diocese; I'm not sure why Holy Trinity is classified as such, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Brussels already has a (Catholic) cathedral. It's quite a big church - room for a couple of hundred people, I'd guess, and several other function rooms (including a bar downstairs, which is an excellent addition to any church!) - but you can't tell from the outside, as it's hidden away in a courtyard behind some other buildings, in the middle of one of Brussels' poshest shopping areas.
It's been there since 1902, though it was called Christ Church back then - it became Holy Trinity in 1958, when the congregation merged with another Anglican church nearby. There are four services every Sunday, all with very different styles, ranging from traditional communion using the Book of Common Prayer to a bilingual French/English service with African music. So far, I've only been to the main morning service, which is a fairly traditional sung communion with a robed choir; and, after only two weeks, I seem to have found myself singing in the said choir! It's amazing what can come from a casual conversation during the after-service coffee... It's a much bigger choir than I'm used to, and quite a few of the members seem to be scarily accomplished musicians, but I think I'm going to enjoy it.
This is terrific news; I did wonder what you were going to do about the God stuff in your new habitat, and you seem to have found somewhere that I envy you.
ReplyDeleteBelated happy patronal to you and your fellow Brussels Anglicans.